Students
visit Washington D.C.Our trip started with a flight out of Spokane on June 5. We flew
to Washington DC with our first stop at the Smithsonian Natural History
Museum. Students experienced many kinds of fossils, stuffed creatures
of ocean life. We saw the Hope Diamond, the world’s largest blue
diamond. We finished and headed to dinner at the world famous Carmine’s,
a place that served big plates of pasta and other Italian foods.
From dinner we headed to view the Lincoln Memorial. Our first night’s
stay was at College Park, Maryland, right by the University of Maryland
campus.
Day 2 started early with breakfast and then a bus ride to the Vietnam
Memorial. We saw the men’s memorial as well as the famous wall and
the women’s memorial. We then traveled to the Einstein Memorial in
front of the Academy of Science. We visited places such as the Crypt,
which was originally intended to have the tomb of George and Martha Washington,
the Old Supreme Court chamber and the famous Capitol Rotunda. We
ate at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. There we viewed great
space artifacts such as the Spirit of St. Louis, the X-1 which Chuck Yeager
flew and the 1903 Wright Flyer. At Mount Vernon we toured the mansion
of George and Martha Washington. To finish the second day, we visited
memorials of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The last stop was at the Jefferson Memorial which honors our 3rd president.
Day 3 was another busy day. We loaded our luggage and headed
to the Arlington National Cemetery. Our first stop was at the grave
site of President John F. Kennedy. We got to see where his two brothers
Robert and Edward are buried. We headed to the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldiers where we were able to see the changing of the guard. There
was also a wreath-laying ceremony which finished with the playing of “Taps”.
Before boarding the bus for New York City, we went to the United States
Marine Corps Memorial where we were lucky enough to encounter some marines
training to become officers and learning about one of the most important
places for them. We boarded the bus and headed for New
York….we detoured to Philadelphia where we took a quick look at the Liberty
Bell and Independence Hall. We ate at the Heartland and headed to
the Empire State building. We were able to get some great views of
the city from 86 stories up.
Day 4 found us at Grand Central Station, as well as Greenwich Village
viewing NYU and Washington Square Park. We drove to SOHO and Chinatown.
We viewed St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church and Wall Street. We took
a ferry to Ellis Island and on our way viewed Liberty Island, home of the
Statue of Liberty. Our next stop was at the World Trade Center Memorial
where we saw water falls that had replaced the two towers that had fallen.
We took pictures of the new towers be constructed. Our last highlight
was attending a Broadway show, Sister Act. We all enjoyed the show.
A quick visit to Times Square for a little shopping and then we headed
back to the hotel.
Day 5 was out last day. We experienced Rockefeller Center and
NBC studios, home of Saturday Night Live. We ate New York City hot
dogs and pretzels and then headed to the airport. We took some very
exciting cab rides to the airport as our tour bus had mechanical difficulties.
We boarded the plan at LaGuardia in New York and headed home. What
an amazing trip…